The present disclosure relates to a pre-5th-Generation (5G) or 5G communication system to be provided for supporting higher data rates Beyond 4th-Generation (4G) communication system such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). Methods of operating a device for controlling a flow rule in a software-defined network (SDN), according to various embodiments, comprise: an operation of receiving a physical address request packet for a first host to communicate with a second host from a first network device connected with the first host; an operation of transmitting the received physical address request packet to a second network device connected with the second host; an operation of generating a flow rule relating to a transmission path of a data packet transmitted from the first host to the second host, on the basis of the physical address of the first host and the physical address of the second host, when a physical address response packet including the physical address of the second host is received from the second network device as a response to the physical address request packet; and an operation of transmitting the generated flow rule to the first network device and the second network device, so that the first network device and the second network device transmit the data packet on the basis of the flow rule.